


A Day Off

by Burgie



Series: SSO Wild West AU [14]
Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 15:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16161566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Eden finds that all of her work has already been done. Maybe her boyfriend knows what's up? Eden belongs to ZealousDawn and the Wild West AU belongs to c-lightlee.





	A Day Off

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ZealousDawn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZealousDawn/gifts).



The sun rose beautifully and faithfully over the sleepy town of New Jorvik. Across the town, ranchers and farmers were rising from their beds, ready to start the long day of training or breaking horses, herding cattle, keeping watch over livestock, watering crops, or just doing any of the other jobs that arose when one made their living on the land. Shop owners were also rising, ready to set out stock and ready the shops for opening, and readying their voices to hawk their wares if they sold goods in the marketplace. Miranda's girls, too, were up early, readying the Calico for a day of bringing pleasure to the hard workers of the town. Animals were already up with the sun, drinking from the troughs or other watering holes in their areas.

And, on the Moorland ranch, their hardest worker, one Eden Dawnvalley, was awake too, ignoring the date in favour of other, more pressing concerns. A new foal had just arrived on the Moorland ranch, and it needed to be properly cared for due to the mother having difficulties accepting the foal and nursing it. As she pulled her working clothes and boots on and tied her brown hair back into a ponytail, Eden didn't even think for a moment that today was special. That today was the day that she'd been brought into this world. That today should be the one day, out of any, that she should take off. Because the truth was that Eden didn't like taking days off. To her, today wasn't her birthday- it was just another Monday.

Eden hummed a little to herself as she stepped out of the bathroom, a luxury that the Moorlands were able to afford thanks to the copious amounts of workers and riders that they had coming in every day. Though she wasn't vain, Eden had noticed that she looked a little nicer today- her indigo eyes seemed to shine just that little bit brighter, the ever-present dark circles under her eyes were just that little bit lighter, her dark brown hair had gone into a ponytail with no fuss, and she'd somehow managed to avoid any skin blemishes. Perfect. Now, if she saw her beau Alonso, she wouldn't need to worry so much about her appearance. Not that she often did, but she liked to look good for him. Seeing him blush and stammer at her approach gave her so much joy.

The kitchen, where Eden usually ate her breakfast (she started too early to have a communal breakfast with everyone else and didn't want to wake anyone by making too much noise), was rather busy at this early hour. The chefs, including a woman by the name of Jenna who, it was rumoured, ranch-owner Thomas was sweet on, were busily making the day's food. With so many workers on the ranch, after all, there were many mouths to feed. And so many of the jobs were hard work, Eden could definitely attest to that.

"Good morning, Jenna," said Eden as she grabbed a slice of bread and spread it with butter and some sweet jam.

"Morning," said Jenna, sounding oddly cheery. She was quite the morning person, something that many on the ranch either hated or envied. Eden admired her enthusiasm, especially when it was so early that the sun was still drying the dew and clearing the mist outside. "Looks to be a pleasant day, doesn't it?"

"It certainly does," said Eden, glancing out the kitchen window. The sky already looked blue, and the air coming in held the promise of heat. Summer seemed intent on hanging on, though it often did. It had been a hard summer for New Jorvik, with drought ravaging the land. The hardest summer of Eden's life, but most of them had survived. They'd lost less horses than most anywhere else, but that victory had seemed minor. Now, though, things were turning around. It looked like everything would be okay, especially on as nice a day as this.

"Do you have any plans for today?" asked Jenna as they ate their meagre breakfast and enjoyed the view outside.

"No, not really," said Eden. "Well, apart from the work, of course, which never ends. But it's nice to have something to do." She gave a smile to Jenna, who chuckled and shook her head.

"I admire your enthusiasm for hard work," said Jenna. "And so does your boyfriend, apparently."

"What do you mean?" asked Eden. She knew that Alonso worked hard, yes, but he was often fretting over how much work she did. Did he secretly envy her, or did he feel a little emasculated because a woman was doing more than him?

"He's somehow convinced all of us to take on extra work today," said Jenna, picking up her mug of coffee and wrapping her hands around it. "I'm certainly not looking forward to that. Leading riding lessons for children is hard enough, especially when school's out so they've got nothing better to do. Don't get me wrong, it's good that they're learning to ride and I love fostering a love of horses in the young, it's just..." She sighed. "They can be a bit of a handful sometimes." Eden laughed.

"Tell me about it," said Eden, moving over to the coffee pot to pour herself a mug of the potent brew. If there was more work to be done, well, it would just be even more satisfying when she finished work for the day and could put her feet up and relax with her boyfriend in his cabin that he lived in on the ranch's outskirts. That was truly her favourite part of any day, when she just got to relax with the love of her life and chat with him about his day.

"Though, it's strange that he's decided to give us extra work on today, of all days," said Jenna, her brow furrowed in thought as she gazed up at the ceiling. "It's almost like we're taking on someone else's work."

"Maybe someone has fallen ill?" asked Eden, wondering who that might be. Though, if it was anything too serious, one of their workers was dating the local doctor, so it wouldn't be too difficult to secure medical treatment for them.

"No idea," said Jenna, shrugging. "But I'm sure we'll manage. We survived summer, after all."

Eden nodded, smiling as she took her first sip of morning coffee. Hopefully, it would be enough to get her through until at least lunchtime, especially when it was this busy.

With food in her belly and coffee putting a spring in her step, Eden left the ranch house after saying good morning to all of the other early risers and headed over to the paddock where they had the new foal turned out to get some exercise. When she got there, though, she saw that there was already someone leading the foal around the paddock.

"Oh, hi, Eden," said Louisa, looking up from where she'd been keeping a careful eye on the little one. "Morning!"

"Good morning, Louisa," said Eden, stopping on the other side of the fence. Young horses could often be unpredictable, after all, and she didn't want to risk the foal bolting out of the paddock or getting overexcited or scared of another human suddenly entering the paddock.

"Got any special plans for today?" asked Louisa. Eden frowned. Why did people keep asking her that? Though it had only been two, it was still two in a row. It was odd.

"Only the usual jobs around the ranch," said Eden. "Training horses, feeding horses, mucking stalls, wrangling horses, mending fences and pipes, and I was going to deal with that little one there but you seem to be doing a pretty good job of that yourself."

"Thank you!" said Louisa, looking positively radiant as she beamed at her. Eden smiled back at her. "I love working with this little guy, he's so cute. It's such a pity about his mother, though."

"I know, but sometimes, it happens," said Eden. "Not very often, though, thankfully."

"Praise Aideen," Louisa agreed. "But when it does happen, at least we can be there for the poor little things." Eden nodded.

"Well, I'll leave you to it," said Eden, turning and walking away from the paddock. "Have fun!"

"Bye, have a nice day!" Louisa called after her. Eden smiled as she made her way over to the stables, though she still felt confused.

A shovel-full of muck almost hit Eden in the fence as she stepped inside the grand Moorland Stables. She blinked, taking a step back and carefully checking to make sure that nothing had actually landed on her face.

"Whoops!" A freckled, embarrassed face poked up from behind the stall door directly adjacent to the stable doors. "Sorry!"

"Maya," said Eden with a laugh. "What are you doing?"

"Oh. Uh," said Maya, fiddling with a lock of her red hair as she stepped out of the stall that she was currently in the process of mucking. Or trying to muck. She didn't appear to be doing a very good job of it, judging by the mess still present in the stall and the hay scattered everywhere. There was more than a bit of said hay in Maya's hair. "Alonso asked me to muck out the stables."

"All of the stable?" asked Eden, raising an eyebrow. "That's a big job."

"Well, there are other girls helping me, of course," said Maya. "They're just... elsewhere."

"I can help you," said Eden, already looking around for a shovel and pitchfork.

"No, no, it's okay!" said Maya, holding her hands up, her eyes wide. "It's not as bad as it looks. Or smells." She wrinkled her nose.

"Are you sure?" asked Eden, peering into the stall again and then looking down the rows of stalls. The rows of very, very messy stalls. Had Maya just been at this one stall all morning? The poor girl. Eden's heart went out to her.

"Yeah, it's fine, I'm fine," said Maya, brushing her off with a gesture of her hand. "You go relax or something."

"It's fine," said Eden, brushing her off in turn and moving to grab the pitchfork that she saw leaning against the wall next to the stable entry. One of Maya's ‘helpers’ had probably left it there earlier. "I don't need to look after that foal so I've got plenty of time."

"No, really, I'm fine," said Maya. "I can handle mucking a few... hundred... stalls." She suddenly looked a little pale as she looked down the rows of stalls.

"Are you sure?" Eden pressed.

"Yeah," said Maya, shaking it off and nodding. "But, uh, if you see any of the Bobcatz... maybe send them my way."

"Will do," said Eden with a laugh as she stepped back outside. This was still very strange, but maybe Alonso was behind this... he hated how much she overworked herself, after all.

After learning that every single new horse was currently being trained (and directing some of the Bobcatz, a group of haughty girls with too much of their parents' money back to the stable to help Maya), Eden felt certain that something was up. So, a little annoyed, Eden mounted Phoenix, her beautiful buckskin gelding, and rode off to where Alonso lived in his cabin on the outskirts of the Moorland ranch. He was inside when she got there, but he came to the door after Eden knocked.

"Alonso," said Eden coolly, giving him a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Care to explain why everyone's taken my jobs today?"

"Come inside," said Alonso, smiling warmly at her. Eden bristled, but followed him inside. She could never stay mad at him, not really, he was too sweet.

"Explain yourself," said Eden, facing him with her arms folded over her chest once Alonso had closed the door behind her.

"It's your birthday," said Alonso, as though that explained everything. Eden blinked. Oh. That did explain everything.

"Oh," said Eden, her anger vanishing.

"Didn't you know that?" asked Alonso, looking concerned. Eden shook her head.

"It slipped my mind," said Eden, a little alarmed to admit it. Who forgot their own birthday?

"Eden," said Alonso, frowning as he gently touched the back of his hand to Eden's forehead. "You've been working too hard, it's- no." He cut himself off, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. "I'm not going to rant at you about your workaholic tendencies today. Not on your birthday."

"I'm sorry," said Eden, closing her eyes and leaning her forehead against Alonso's. "I came here mad at you, too."

"Want to start over?" asked Alonso. "I should've come earlier. I was going to come wake you with breakfast in bed, but..."

"Sorry," said Eden, laughing. "I got up too early."

"I forgot that you're an early riser," said Alonso. "But let's start over anyway?"

"Yes," said Eden, nodding. "Should I go back outside or?"

"Happy birthday, Eden," said Alonso with a chuckle, leaning in to give her a kiss which Eden gladly accepted.

"Thank you," said Eden, her eyes shining with happiness and unshed tears. He was far, far too good for her.

"Any plans for the day?" Alonso asked, the words now making Eden laugh at how foolish she'd been.

"Well, there's always plenty of work to do on the ranch, so I was planning on just working," said Eden. Alonso grinned.

"I think you'll find that your workload for today won't be as large," said Alonso.

"What do you mean?" asked Eden, frowning in confusion. "There's the foal, and so many stalls to be mucked in the stables, and broken fences, and stock needs to be moved..."

"I've asked everyone around here to take on your work today," said Alonso. "Don't worry, there are more than enough people to do it all, and they all agreed. You work so hard, it's about time you earned yourself a break. So today, you can relax. Enjoy your birthday, with the love of your life. And me as well, if you'll have me." Eden giggled, her hands over her mouth, almost giddy with excitement.

"Alonso," Eden cooed, throwing her arms around him. "You're too sweet."

"Only for you," said Alonso, rubbing her back and smiling as he returned her hug. "Now, what say we head into town for a proper breakfast? I know you only had some bread and jam."

"Did someone from the kitchen report back to you?" asked Eden.

"No, you're just predictable," said Alonso, taking hold of her hands. "While you go and get changed into something nice, I'll get the wagon ready for us to go into town."

"That sounds lovely," said Eden, tears in her eyes. She couldn't seem to stop grinning at her boyfriend. Sure, his incessant worrying over her workaholic tendencies was a little annoying, but this was a lovely surprise. And maybe he did have a point, not that she would ever admit it to him.

As she rode back to the main ranch house, Eden was still grinning. The day had just become even more beautiful.


End file.
